Sam Plenty
The Sam Plenty Cavalcade of Action! Show Plus Singing!Henson Company press release, March 10, 2008 was a live action web-series produced by the Jim Henson Company. The series was created and directed by Paul Rugg and Mitch Schauer.Sam Plenty - About The series launched its own website located at samplenty.com, which was later turned into a redirect to a brief production description page on Henson.com. The series was designed as a Western comedy musical with science-fiction and action adventure elements, starring cowboy hero Sam Plenty. Victor Yerrid described Sam Plenty in a 2007 interview as "a throwback to the old Gene Autry Show."An Interview with Victor Yerrid. The Muppet Newsflash, August 2007 In particular, the premise recalls Autry's 1935 serial The Phantom Empire, in which Autry and his ranch and musician friends must battle an evil queen, robots, and various sci-fi devices. It also spoofs aspects of the Flash Gordon serials. The serial was titled "Sam Plenty in Underdoom". The first installment of the five-episode serial debuted on the web on March 10, 2008 with the final episode uploaded in May. However, adding to the parody element of the series, the series began at "part 3" and ended with a teaser for "part 8" (entitled "Conquest of Doom!"). The Sam Plenty website also included a sing-along video, an audio interview with the director, decorder messages, mad libs, coluring pages, word searches, print-outs, photo gallery, fictional bios on the cast members and director and other interactive activities. The cast was a mixture of minor TV/film actors and veteran Henson puppeteers; the latter included Yerrid (as Bob Choppy), Drew Massey (as Sam Plenty), and Allan Trautman (as the professor). A sample of the project was screened at the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con. The series was the subject of episode #25 of the Henson.com podcast. The podcast featured interviews with Paul Rugg as fictional director Sanso Pontapuntaquenia and Drew Massey as Sam Plenty."Meet Sam Plenty" - Henson.com Podcast, March 10, 2008 Pontapuntaquenia was also featured in an audio interview on the fictional program "Conversation With"; audio from the interview could be heard in the "Meet the Director" section of samplenty.com. Episodes Cast Although a full cast list with biographies is available at Henson.com,Henson.com- Sam Plenty Cast Samplenty.com provided joke names and fictional biographies for the various cast members. The only screen credit on the actual episodes read "Starring Drew Massey as Sam Plenty" *Drew Massey as Sam Plenty (credited as Sam Plenty) *Zand Broumand as Sergeant Yak Munch (credited as Wallace Stanch) *Jeffrey Cannata as Doom Rider *Stephanie Denise Griffin as Marion Weadle (credited as Ethel Demerit) *Golda Inquito as Hanalei (credited as Meorani Hakalakala) *Jay Mawhinney as Lord Grand Chapeau (credited as Rinaldo Etches) *Dan Mott as Billy Weadle (credited as Rex Argo) *Marie O'Donnell as Queen Verbosa (credited as Dolores Del Norte) *Jerry Trainor as Fetcheye Buggins (credited as Magnus Hobble) *Allan Trautman as Professor August Weadle (credited as Rex Argo) *Victor Yerrid as Bob Choppy (credited as Ketch Erd) Sources External links *"The Sam Plenty Cavalcade of Action Show Plus Singing" on Henson.com *Henson Company press release, March 10, 2008 __NOWYSIWYG__ Category:Henson Company Web Content